Strip tillage is a farming practice which has evolved primarily out of no-till farming. In no-till farming, the field is generally plowed under after harvest, but is left in an untilled state with crop residue covering the field. The crop residue is effective in limiting soil erosion. Strip tillage involves the tilling of a narrow strip of soil, rather than the entire field which is followed by a planter row unit directly in each of the strips. Thus, only the elongated strips, or zones, of ground will be planted with the upcoming season's row crop. In strip tillage and no-till, the farmer typically uses a less aggressive tilling method and does not completely plow or turn the soil under. Over time, farmers increase the fracture of the ground and the air pore space within the soil to enhance root growth area to support more productive plants.
Strip tillage requires precise positioning of the agricultural implements with each pass through the field. End strips of adjacent passes should optimally be positioned as closely as possible to ensure the development of highly productive plants. Too large a space results in a waste of soil area, while too close spacing restricts development of the plants in adjacent rows. Accurate positioning of the soil working implements becomes increasingly difficult with irregularities in the surface of the soil. When operating on a slope, the pulled implements tend to drift down slope and below the track of the traction vehicle pulling the implements, resulting in non-uniform spacing between adjacent rows. The extent of down slope drift increases with the change in elevation of the soil surface.
The present invention addresses these challenges in strip tillage by providing for the automatic positioning of agricultural implements in precisely placed strips for each field pass using a global positioning system (GPS) for precisely controlling inter-strip spacing during on-the-go operations.